by Rob Wyllie
'Aye, so she sees these happy families in the glossy magazines,' Frank said incredulously 'and says I want one of them.'
'And they were clever,' Jimmy said. 'That's why the abductions were spread all across Europe, so that each looked just like a one-off crime. Less police attention and less resources meant less chance of them being caught.'
'Yes, that was it. And remember, these kids were very carefully targeted, so although the families lived in Europe, they were all what you might call of Anglo heritage. English speakers in other words.'
'Aye,' Frank said, slurping his beer, 'because I bet that Melody wouldn't have wanted a foreign kid.'
'God, she really is off her head,' Jill said, 'and I can't believe she built that weird palace under her house to keep her collection. It was like a little dolls' house only with real kids.'
A dolls' house but with real kids. For a moment everyone was silent as the startling image painted by Jill played out in their minds. But at that point, their food arrived and the hustle and bustle around their table provided a welcome distraction. Glasses were refilled and the conversation lightened, before Maggie continued with her explanations.
'So now we come to what is probably the most horrible part of the whole affair.'
'The abductions,' Jimmy said.
'Yes, the abductions. I'm afraid it was just so ridiculously simple. The Kemps roped in their photographer mate Eddie Taylor to take some photographs and to track the routine of the victims and then it was easy for Harry Kemp and his son Vince to do a clean snatch, with minimal risk of being caught.'
'Except in Ollie's case where it all nearly went pear-shaped,' Jimmy said. 'Poor wee Josh Clark.'
'Look, I didn't really want to ask this question,' Frank said, his voice quiet, 'but why Ollie? All the other kids had parents in the public eye.'
'I think I can answer that,' Jimmy said ruefully. 'It was that garden party at Melody's place. Do you remember I showed you the photographs? These posed family shots with her and Danny and the kids? So because it had made great business sense to return the van Duren boy, there was a vacancy. And when she saw Ollie, she decided he was the one to replace Brandon.'
'Thank god we got to him,' Jill said, giving a shudder, 'and to all of them.'
'They'll be fine,' Maggie said. 'Kids are great, they can bounce back from anything.'
If only she could be sure the reality would match the certainty with which she said it. Ollie had seen his father and his lover murdered in cold blood in his own home, but more than a year on, it seemed on the outside at least to have been forgotten. But she feared it had only been buried temporarily, to resurface when he was a little older, a dreadfulness that might blight his life forever. As for the other two kids, Kitty Lawrence was back with her family in France, and Jamie Grant was back with his mum in Chelsea. Would they be fine? She hoped against hope that they would, but for quite a while it would be in the balance.
'Aye, let's raise a glass to wee Eleanor Campbell and her big Dutch pal,' Frank said. 'Led us straight to Harry Kemp they did. She's a genius that girl.'
'Yeah, I've always been curious how you get her to do all these things for you Frank,' Jill said, smiling.
'Natural charm and charisma ma'am. You've either got it or you haven't. No, the truth is she likes being tucked away out of sight in Atlee House. She can't stand all the bureaucratic crap she has to put up with at their place in Maida Vale, and I get to take advantage of that.'
They had completed their mains and were awaiting the table to be cleared. Looking at the empty wine bottles Jimmy said, 'I think I need a wee pint, don't know about anybody else? I'll take a stroll up to the bar if you shout them out.'
Jill said, 'I know I shouldn't but I'd love a G and T. What about you Maggie, the same? I'll come and help you Jimmy.'
She didn't know why, but Maggie felt a sudden tinge of resentment towards Jill. Actually, she did know why. She was so ridiculously thin for a start, and that didn't help. And her and Jimmy, was something going on there? He was a colleague, an employee to be exact, and yes, he had become a friend too, but nothing more, and Jill was only going to the bar to help him with the drinks, for goodness sake. Glancing over her shoulder, she watched them, laughing, at ease in each other's company. As they made their way back, Jill's hand rested on Jimmy's elbow, gently guiding him to their table. You couldn't mistake that body language. With an effort, she pushed the scene to the back of her mind.
'There we go everyone,' Jimmy said, passing round the drinks. 'These should suitably refresh us I think.'
'Thanks Jimmy,' Maggie said. 'And cheers all. Shall I continue?'
Everyone signalled their assent, Jill saying, 'I hope you're going to come on to the murders now?'
'Yes, the murders. Well believe it or not, there was actually quite a strong connection back to that blooming pre-nuptial agreement which gave us so much trouble. We didn't think so at first, but it turned out there was.'
Frank gave her a puzzled look. 'I'm sorry, but I just don't see how.'
Maggie smiled. 'Have patience Frank and all will be revealed. But I'm afraid it's a rather long and twisted tale.'
He looked at his glass which was nearly full, giving a satisfied grin. 'Good to go Maggie. I'm going to enjoy this.'
'Me too,' Jill said.
'So as you've heard, when Benjamin and Melody found they couldn't have children, natural or adopted, she decided on her crazy abduction program, starting with Jamie Grant. We think that at first Benjamin must have been happy to go along with it, although we imagine he would have had big reservations. Anyone would.'
'Aye, do you remember that picture I found with him and a kid, in the fancy garden?' Jimmy said. 'Well that kid was Jamie Grant. So at that stage, looked like he was happy to play the doting father.'
‘And that was the garden you recognised,' Frank said, 'after you had that wee tête-à-tête with Melody. Whatever did happen that night by the way?'
'Nothing,' Jimmy said briskly, 'nothing at all.'
'But then as she started talking of extending her little family, the full extent of Melody's delusion became clear to him and he wanted out,' Maggie said. 'By this time he had hooked up with Allegra Ross and had decided to leave his old life behind.'
Jimmy nodded. 'Aye, but then he figured out he had a wee insurance policy over Melody. He knew her little secret and guessed she would do anything to keep it hidden.'
'And he wasn't wrong there,' Frank said. 'Just not in the way he was thinking.'
'Exactly,' Maggie said. 'So we think it was the death of Kylie Ward that started it off.'
'That was definitely an accident?' Jill asked,
'We think so. Frank made a few enquiries with the officers who attended the incident and they had a description of the hit and run driver. A teenager in a stolen hot-hatch. A tragic accident, but Fox wasn't involved, we're pretty sure.'
'No, he wasn't.' Jimmy said, 'but it got him thinking. And when he found out something else, something much bigger, he realised he might have a little goldmine in his hands.'
'Explain Miss Bainbridge,' Jill said, looking puzzled.
'We can't be certain, but we reckon Benjamin must have found out about da Vinci. And he knew that if it became public, Charles Grant would be completely humiliated. So he says to Charles, there's a little difficulty with that pre-nuptial agreement you witnessed four years ago. It would be really useful if you could corroborate my version of it, because the other witness has sadly died. And if you do that, nobody need know about da Vinci. Oh and by the way, could you pay a visit to Pentonville prison and pay off the lawyer who drew the thing up.'
'And that's where we came in,' Jimmy said. 'Melody doesn't really know how to play it. She doesn't want to lose her seventy-five percent but she doesn't want Benjamin blabbing either. So she asks Asvina to sort it out, and then she gave us our wee mission impossible.'
'I get some of that, but you've still not said anything about the murders,' Jill said, shooting Maggie a
smile. 'I'm getting impatient.'
Maggie laughed. 'Yes, sorry Jill, just getting to them. So we're not sure how exactly, but we think Melody had found out that Allegra Ross knew about the abduction of Jamie Grant. Remember we found that photograph under their bed and her diary where she talked about everything being ruined? Well it would ruin a relationship, finding out that your lover has colluded in the kidnapping of a child. That we think was the reason for the argument we saw at the awards ceremony.'
'Everybody saw it,' Jimmy said. 'Eight million people saw it. Which would have included the Kemps.'
Maggie nodded. 'And Fox and Ross were really going at it so could have easily been overheard. Whatever the case, we guess there's a Kemp family meeting where it’s decided it needs to be taken care of, quietly and efficiently.'
'And the Leonardo message on the severed hands?' Jill asked.
'Everyone knew about that incident at the Hyde Park rally, when the White British League attacked Benjamin and Ross ,' Maggie said.
'Especially me,' Frank said ruefully, rubbing the back of his head. 'It still bloody hurts.'
'So the severed hand thing was engineered to support the narrative that these murders were carried out by the far-right. You know, to teach all these leftie liberals a lesson. We guess Fox must have told Melody about the da Vinci posts, and how Grant had originally claimed it was Venables who was behind them. So they came up with this little cryptic puzzle which was deliberately made not too difficult to solve. Leonardo leading to da Vinci, da Vinci leading to Darren Venables. And then once the false trail had been set, Terry and Harry Kemp went to work. Professional and ruthless.'
'And it worked,' Jill said, 'for a while, until you all saw through it. So come on, the Danny Black murder. Where does that fit in?'
'It was all because of Charles' doomed love for Sharon Trent,' Maggie said. 'He knew his girlfriend was going to be side-lined in the show as the Ronnie and Patty West story took centre stage, and in his warped mind, killing Danny so that the storyline died with him was the perfect way to demonstrate his love.'
'He was one mental guy,' Jimmy said, 'with that da Vinci thing and all that. Is it any wonder poor Sharon had a stroke, when he told her what he had done? I've murdered for you and by the way I love you? The shock must have been overwhelming.'
'Exactly,' Maggie said. 'Remember, he had been to the morgue to identify Benjamin Fox's body, and would have seen the severed hand and the message written on it. Rather clever, and he would have got away with it too if Frank hadn't seen through it.'
Frank laughed. 'Copy-cat, eh? Well I realised that Charles Grant was one of just two people outside of the media who knew the MO of the murders. You know, I do believe this is the first time in his entire career that Colin Barker has actually been right about anything.'
'Yes, and he's not stopped telling anybody who'll listen about it since,' Jill said. 'Although naturally he's not mentioning that it was you who worked it out.'
'Well, Grant's going to pay the price for it,' Maggie said. 'He's looking at twenty-five years minimum, despite everything he's been through.'
Frank was trying to suppress a smile. 'So tell me, have you two decided that you're only going to take on murderers as clients? Because if that's the strategy, maybe I wouldn't put it on your website.'
'They've not all been murderers,' Maggie said, with mock indignation. 'But maybe we should specialise.'
Jimmy grinned. 'No, I don't think so boss. Let's stick to divorces, shall we? It's much safer.'
'I don't think that McCartney lad would agree with that,' Frank said, laughing.
'Yes, what was that all about?' Jill asked.
'Quite simple,' Jimmy said, 'the Kemps found from their sources in the nick that McCartney had been having visitors. So they put two and two together, McCartney takes a beating and miraculously Melody's problem goes away. Her original document had long been destroyed, but it didn't take much for his paralegal to draw up a fake replica, and with Fox dead and McCartney now willing to vouch for its authenticity, the problem's solved.'
Jill sighed. 'It corrupts, doesn't it? Money I mean.'
'I wouldn't know ma'am,' Frank said, flashing her a sardonic smile. 'You don't pay me enough for that.'
'More than you're worth mate, more than you're worth,' Jimmy said.
'But it wasn't all about money, was it?' Maggie said quietly. 'Not for Melody. It was about love and her fanatical desire to create the family life she'd only ever experienced in magazines. She was evil I know, but in some ways I feel sorry for her. And now she will never have it.'
◆◆◆
The waiter arrived with the bill, enquiring, as dictated by his management, whether they had enjoyed their lunch, not bothering to disguise that he really didn't give a stuff whether they had or they hadn't. He listened to their eulogies with indifference then said, 'Who wants this?'
Frank raised his hand and took the bill from him, theatrically unfolding it to unveil the total. With a mock grimace, he quickly pushed it across to Maggie, who glanced at it and gave a real grimace.
Out of the blue, Jill said, 'The Assistant Commissioner mentioned you by name Frank, in my meeting this morning. Said you'd done a damn good job and asked why were you wasting your time in Department 12B. We talked about my next role too and he wondered if I was going to find a place for you in my new team.'
Frank looked at her suspiciously. 'I didn't know you were moving ma'am.' The truth was he had come to like Department 12B and he liked working for Jill Smart too. He had always known of course that for her, the job was just a stepping-stone on her upward career trajectory, but still it had come as a surprise to realise that the thought of it coming to an end alarmed him so much.
'Frank, you know I didn't want to be stuck in godforsaken Atlee House for longer than necessary. I've been offered the job of heading up the Met's serious fraud team. It's a fantastic role and I'm going to take it.'
He did his best to hide his disappointment. 'Congratulations ma'am, you deserve it.'
'Thank you Frank. But the good news, for me at least, is that the AC still wants me to oversee 12B. He was kind enough to say it's made great progress under my leadership and that he didn't want to lose that. Of course I told him that most of the success was down to you, and he said, and this is his exact words, why don't you get your Scottish nutter to head up the Atlee house team? And I said I would ask you. So here I am, asking you. It wouldn't be a promotion, not at first at least, but well... what do you think?'
So Frank thought about it. He grimaced when he thought of the cast of casts-off and ne'er-do-wells that would be under his command. He groaned when he thought of the endless reports he would have to write and the complicated forms he would doubtless be forced to fill in and the dull meetings he would be mandated to attend. But on the other hand, he might be able to swing an upgrade to Atlee House's vending facilities as a condition of taking on the job, and he would ask for them to at least give the place a lick of paint. And when he'd finished thinking about all of that, the conclusion was, to his mind, a no-brainer.
Beaming her a huge smile he said, 'That ma'am, would be bloody brilliant.' Then as much to his surprise as hers, he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her full on the lips. He was even more surprised when she made no attempt to free herself from his embrace.
Furtively, Jimmy shot a downward glance. Ten minutes earlier as they stood waiting to be served at the bar, DCI Jill Smart had scribbled her phone number on the back of his left hand. Quickly, he moistened his fingertips with his tongue and began to erase it, hoping to be unobserved. But Maggie had witnessed him in the act, and suddenly, for her, everything felt right with the world.
BOOK 3
THE APHRODITE SUICIDES
PROLOGUE
It wasn't hard to spot her, even amongst the dense sea of faces emerging from the office block. He'd studied her photo often enough, and not just for business either, because this bird was seriously drop-dead gorgeous. Saddled with a st
upid chav name mind you, but he guessed they hadn't employed her for her brains. He watched as she strode across the concrete plaza, tall and confident and knowing, her sleek auburn hair flowing over her bare shoulders like a waterfall. Every now and again she gave a little flick of her head, a cascade of hair spinning around her as if in slow motion, just like these fit women in the shampoo adverts. Knowing. Christ, what he wouldn't give to have just one night in her bed. He could take her if he wanted, he knew he could, like he'd done in the past with a few of them, but today that wasn't on the cards. The brief from the boss was perfectly straightforward and there was a tidy little fifteen grand earner attached. Today was strictly business. Today was the day she was going to die.
He felt in his pocket for the reassuring caress of cold metal. He liked the Beretta, compact enough to be unobtrusive but deadly accurate at short range. But he wasn't going to be firing it today. The little pistol was simply his persuader if she decided to get awkward.
Now he got a little closer, slipping into the crowd about twenty metres behind her, following the snake of homeward-bound commuters up the stairs and into the entrance of the Tube station. Then through the barriers and onto the down escalator. District Line, eastbound. He caught up with her just as she stepped onto the platform, his firm grip on her upper arm causing her to spin round in annoyance. His face was now up close to hers, so that she could hear his whisper. His people want to speak to you. I'm here to take you to them.
On this occasion the operation had gone like a dream, her initial surprise quickly evaporating into surly resignation. She'd no idea why they wanted to talk to her, but she'd taken their money so didn't really have a choice in the matter. A ten-minute train ride to his office, a short meeting, and then home. In reality, it wasn't too much of a disruption to her schedule.
Except today she wasn't going on a train. Today she was going under one.
